Episode 2, “Creating Safe Spaces for Healthy Encounters with Doubt” (Ether 12-13)

Sunstone Institute Podcast – Sunstone

A widely quoted Mormon maxim states that “faith and doubt cannot exist in the same mind at the same time, for one will dispel the other.” Yet lived experience suggests that faith may be more like a spectrum where belief and non-belief support and inform each other in a fluid relationship. By failing to acknowledge and affirm the many legitimate variations of faithfulness, we may be artificially constricting the bounds of our religious community and blocking people from the further spiritual growth and development that they would otherwise be able to enjoy within the community. Are the boundaries of “faithful” Mormon religiosity more expansive than what we tend to admit? How can we create safe spaces in the Church for those who want to explore their doubts honestly while also retaining a healthy connection to their faith?

Michael Vinson explores these questions with a group of Sunstoners in this October 28 discussion. You may stream the audio using the media player below. Feel free to also download the audio for yourself at this link. The third episode of the podcast will be recorded on Sunday, November 25, at 6 pm in the Sunstone office. We will be discussing Moroni 10:4 in the Book of
Mormon and talking about what it really might mean to “know” whether or not the Church is true.

See also Episode 1: “What Would Jesus Actually Say? What Did Jesus Actually Say?” (3 Nephi 12-15). [powerpress image=”http://sunstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/againiconofsunforitunes.jpg”]